Chapter Seven: Managing Knowledge Panels
Third-person rewrite of The Fundamentals of BrandSERPs for Business by Jason Barnard
Why Knowledge Panels are the ultimate Rich Element for your Brand SERP
Google’s Knowledge Panels offer instant credibility and represent Google’s stamp of approval. These panels display a curated summary of information and are typically shown on the right-hand side of desktop search results. They provide a quick and helpful overview of any searchable entity—such as people, companies, films, podcasts, music groups, or organisations.
Knowledge Panels reflect how Google understands the world—including its understanding of your brand. When Google’s understanding is accurate and confident, a well-optimised Knowledge Panel can drastically improve the quality of your Brand SERP, positioning your brand as authoritative and trustworthy.
How Google builds and validates a Knowledge Panel
Google builds Knowledge Panels using an algorithm that aggregates and cross-references information from trusted sources such as Wikipedia, Google Books, and other curated databases, along with additional information crawled by GoogleBot. The aim is to provide factual and reliable information to users.
Jason Barnard emphasizes that while you cannot fully control what appears in the Knowledge Panel, you can influence it by managing the sources Google trusts. As you optimise your Brand SERP and consistently reinforce a clear and authoritative brand narrative, Google gains confidence in its understanding. Over time, this leads to the appearance of an accurate and helpful Knowledge Panel.
Why an accurate Knowledge Panel is essential
An accurate and well-documented Knowledge Panel signals that Google understands your brand, what it offers, and the audience it serves. It enhances the Brand SERP, boosts SEO performance, and improves trust with prospective clients. Knowledge Panels are increasingly common—so not having one can diminish credibility and lead to lost opportunities.
How to build credibility for your Knowledge Panel using E-A-T
Credibility is critical to earning and stabilising a Knowledge Panel. Google evaluates a brand’s Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). Jason Barnard advises actively building brand credibility by generating positive buzz in your peer and audience communities. This includes:
- Creating relevant, high-quality third-party content about your brand.
- Linking from your site to third-party sources to reinforce brand mentions.
- Ensuring all information is consistent and accurate across the web.
A strong E-A-T score improves SEO performance and solidifies Google’s understanding, increasing the likelihood of generating a Knowledge Panel.
The three determining factors for your Knowledge Panel
- Google’s understanding of who your brand is.
- Google’s confidence in that understanding.
- The likelihood that the user’s query refers to your brand as a specific entity and that a Knowledge Panel would be useful to them.
Why building a digital ecosystem is key
To ensure Google builds an accurate Knowledge Panel for your brand, you must create a diverse and robust digital footprint. This includes consistent publishing on your website, social media, third-party media, and authoritative directories. A rich digital ecosystem signals to Google that your brand is active, trusted, and relevant.
What a Knowledge Panel includes and how it works
Knowledge Panels summarise the key facts about an entity. For example, Leonardo da Vinci’s panel includes his birthdate, artistic contributions, and connections to other notable figures like Michelangelo. Google collects and connects this information in a way that mirrors how a human might understand it—by drawing relationships between verified facts.
Now imagine your brand with a Knowledge Panel that presents your mission, values, and services at a glance. That’s the goal. An accurate Knowledge Panel empowers your audience to understand your brand with a single search.
Why Knowledge Panels are vital to your digital strategy
A Brand SERP that features a rich and accurate Knowledge Panel is a powerful digital asset. It communicates authority, simplifies the research process for users, and eliminates the need for them to consult multiple sources.
Jason Barnard explains that SEO techniques should be applied to support and maintain your Knowledge Panel. These include:
- Optimising your website with accurate brand information.
- Using structured data to help Google understand key facts.
- Maintaining consistent messaging across all digital platforms.
Knowledge Panels: simple, powerful, and worth mastering
Although Knowledge Panels are one of the most complex components of Brand SERP optimisation, they offer extraordinary value. Jason Barnard outlines a simple three-step approach for managing them:
- Build understanding using an Entity Home and structured data.
- Demonstrate credibility through authoritative third-party corroboration.
- Reinforce consistent digital signals across your entire ecosystem.
To dive deeper, explore additional Kalicube resources or watch for Jason Barnard’s upcoming book dedicated exclusively to Knowledge Panels. They are astonishingly powerful, surprisingly simple to trigger, and critically important to your digital brand strategy.
